Latest news with #UKmilitary
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
British comedian faces up to three years in a Turkish prison after she forgot to pay at a Zara store
A British comedian faces up to three years in Turkish prison after walking out of a Zara store without paying - despite going back to apologise when she realised her mistake. Cerys Nelmes, a stand-up comic from the Cotswolds, was shopping at the clothing store in Istanbul on July 22 when she says she absentmindedly left before ringing up her purchases. She claims she returned to the store to hand back the items and offered to pay, but was instead detained, locked in a room for hours without explanation, and eventually arrested for shoplifting. Ms Nelmes said she was taken to a police station, pressured to sign documents in a language she could not read, and held in a cell for 24 hours with no food, toilet or water. The comedian, who once played a paramedic in medical drama Casualty, said: 'I was told they didn't understand me.' The next day, she was brought before a judge who released her but banned her from leaving the country. She now faces a potential three-year sentence as the case proceeds. Nelmes says she is stranded in Turkey, unable to afford accommodation and missing out on work back home, putting her and her son at risk of losing their UK home. She said: 'I'm ok and have been taken in by a Turkish family who gave me food and a bed.' Ms Nelmes describes herself on her website as a 'leading mc on the comedy circuit' and regularly gigs for the UK military - including being the last comedian to perform for UK troops before they withdrew from Afghanistan. Her acting roles have included Casualty and JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy. Alongside her comedy performances, she also made headlines in April 2019 when she saved a fellow diner from choking at a restaurant before a gig. The comedian was grabbing a bite to eat in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, when she peformed the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge a prawn that was stuck in a woman's throat. In a post on social media speaking about her detention and subsequent stranding in Turkey, she said: 'On Tuesday I left a Zara store in Istanbul without paying for items. 'I returned straight away and handed the items to staff. I was asked to pay and I said I would and the manager accepted this. 'To cut a long story short I was then taken to a locked room where hours later after no communication from anyone I was taken away by police and held in a police station and was asked to sign things I couldn't read. 'I was put in a prison cell for 24 hours with no food or toilet facilities. When I asked for water, I was told they didn't understand me. 'I was handcuffed and taken for fingerprints and mugshots at 3am. I was handcuffed and taken to court the following day and put in a cell. 'I appeared before the judge and was told by a translator that I was released, but unable to leave Turkey for an undetermined amount of time. 'He said I was lucky to not be put in prison but I currently face up to three years. I have to report to a local police station every Monday. 'I am lucky I have good friends in Turkey who are currently looking after me, and trying to translate the paperwork. 'I have no money, no earnings coming in from home, and I am running out of important medication. I will lose my home which I share with my son, and livelihood. 'I am not looking for sympathy. I made a mistake which I tried to immediately rectify. I am embarrassed for my friends, my family, and I have made my 78-year-old mum unwell. I will never forgive myself for what I have done.' An Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said: 'We are providing support to a British national in Turkey.'
Arab News
04-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
UK defense review points to an exposed West
Some of the statements made this week by politicians in the UK — along the lines of a 'new era of threats needs a new era of defense,' that we 'need to prepare for war in order to preserve peace' and that events in the world make it imperative the UK military moves to a 'war-fighting readiness' — were, to say the least, very alarming. The Strategic Defence Review published on Monday undoubtedly represents a systematic and detailed analysis of what Britain needs to do to address new uncertainties and evolving threats from Russia, nuclear risks and cyberattacks. But like other reviews, it is more an exercise in focusing the minds and pockets of the nation to ensure the UK is self-sufficient and self-reliant in a changing world. But that is only possible if the nation as a whole buys into it, which, despite the proximity of Russia's war in Ukraine and the rhetoric of the government this week, seemingly remains a long shot. The review, commissioned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately after he took office last July, has the specter of US President Donald Trump written all over it. Britain and Europe are now having to take responsibility for their own security, while being at the mercy of an emboldened Russia that has brought war back to Europe after 80 years of relative peace. The delay of taking the UK's defense spending beyond 3 percent of gross domestic product, which will not happen until after the next general election, put a dent in the country's efforts to modernize its military, which has been starved of funding by years of austerity, economic mismanagement and the self-inflicted wound of Brexit. What the review does do, however, is present a table of critical threats faced by nations in the West, and not just the UK. They range from the obvious: Russia, which is seen as an 'immediate and pressing' threat, the 'sophisticated and persistent challenge' of China, and Iran and North Korea as mere disruptors. The less obvious and more complex threats mentioned include the climate emergency, the US' 'change in security priorities' and the potential for adversaries to sabotage undersea cables. Britain and Europe are now having to take responsibility for their own security, while being at the mercy of an emboldened Russia Mohamed Chebaro The war in Ukraine has no doubt helped focus the minds of defense experts, particularly as Ukrainian sovereignty greatly depends on the personal whims of tech tycoons such as Elon Musk for the continuous supply of satellite networks such as Starlink, not only to fly its drones but also to keep hospital operating theaters online. If anything, the review has exposed the slowness of successive governments in the UK and elsewhere in grasping the scale of the menace posed by hybrid forms of warfare, from malicious disinformation and troll farms that seek to influence and radicalize to cyberattacks, the weaponization of migrants and street gangs of underage, radicalized actors that aim to disrupt, distort, overwhelm or sabotage. What the UK's strategic review does not tell us is how modern Western societal models can be mobilized. Mobilizing industry in the private sector is easy, as all companies yearn to win lucrative government procurement contracts. But the mobilization of troops needs the state to meet the aspirations of its people and to convince youngsters of the sacrifices needed. The question is whether the government will be able to articulate the threats and convince a capitalist society of a doctrine of 'one for all and all for one,' which is nonexistent today. The strategic review's downfall could be any failure to persuade citizens that everyone must play their part to help keep the lights on and the internet working. Above all, they must believe in the national narrative as spelt out by the government in an era of fake news and competing narratives. This review has identified the threats of today, but they could change tomorrow. The challenge is whether the government is capable of building the systems needed to neutralize the threats of both today and tomorrow. What the UK's strategic review does not tell us is how modern Western societal models can be mobilized Mohamed Chebaro The easy part might be, as per the plan accepted by the government, for Britain to expand its fleet of attack submarines, which are nuclear-powered but carry conventional munitions. The government is to spend nearly £20 billion ($27 billion) by 2029 to pay for the replacement of the UK's nuclear warheads for its main nuclear fleet, as well as building six new munitions production factories, procuring up to 7,000 British-made long-range weapons and building a new communications system that is battlefield-capable. This is in addition to a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command that will lead defensive and offensive cyber capabilities. This was prompted because the British military has faced more than 90,000 so-called sub-threshold attacks over the past two years. Of course, the difficult part is finding the money. But no less important is persuading the British youth to fight, which might be a difficult mountain to climb. Without them on board and recognizing the threat, the review will be doomed, especially as the UK's army is currently the smallest in Europe at 70,860, the fewest troops it has had since the Napoleonic era. Despite its military's limited size and the budget cuts of recent years, the UK still ranks as one of Europe's leading military powers and its troops have been actively defending NATO's eastern flank, while its navy maintains a presence in the Indo-Pacific. While the UK has acknowledged the mountain of security adversities piling up, its efforts to spend in order to defend itself risk pushing militarism to the brink and making any moves to return to multilateralism even more elusive in this changing world with its conflictive superpowers.
Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- Times
Labour's breezy slogans won't buy peace
It begins, as these set-piece unveilings always do, with a CGI carrier task force skimming across a PowerPoint ocean. Labour's gleaming strategic defence review pledges to make Britain 'ten times more lethal' — breezy sloganeering from a team that's spent twelve months turning bullets into bullet points, while the world's villains got on with firing the real thing. Sir Keir talks of 'war-fighting readiness'; the Treasury mutters, sotto voce: 'but not just yet, old chap'. Forgive us if we recognise the choreography. This review hasn't moved the dial: it's spun it in a full circle. Between us, we dragged our defence spending commitment to 2.5 per cent of GDP, only to watch Labour shelve the pledge, vanish into a year-long policy huddle, then re-emerge clutching a slightly dog-eared version of the plan we'd already put in motion. What's been dressed up as bold reform is, in truth, delay repackaged as discovery. The £6 billion complex weapons deal with MBDA? Already signed. The £1.5 billion for BAE munitions? Already funded. Advanced targeting and data networks? Green-lit. A dozen Aukus submarines? Part of the 28 ships and boats announced by us in the last parliament. But it's not just the reheated announcements — it's the structural fragility of what's now been offered. Defence reviews, like soufflés, tend to collapse without heat. They may launch fully funded, but are soon gnawed to bits by cost pressures. If this review meant business, the chancellor would have stamped '3% by 2030' — three by thirty — on the front page in block capitals. Instead, we're handed a blueprint that's hollow before it even hits the slipway. If the goal was to send a message to Moscow, it should have been written in Sheffield steel and Devonport apprenticeships, not in a carousel of retweeted infographics. And while ministers claim fiscal prudence, they're preparing to spend billions handing back the Chagos Islands — a territorial carve-up that will warm every autocrat's heart. Worse, if that bill comes out of the defence budget, then they're quite literally cutting weapons to fund weakness. Meanwhile, the world has changed gear. We've moved from postwar to prewar. Hypersonic missiles compress decision time to seconds. Quantum cyberattacks skip past timetables and Whitehall excuses. A government that waits for 'economic headroom' before making hard choices may find that deterrence isn't a direct debit you can pause. Either you pay up front, or you pay in blood. This week could, and should, have been different. Commit to three by thirty. Publish an equipment plan that sustains the drumbeat of conventional munitions. Double down on sovereign capacity while building out allied platforms from Aukus to GCAP. And recognise the truth every chancellor since Gladstone should have known: that deterrence is cheaper than war. Britain remains a nuclear-armed, cybercapable, globally deployed power. Our armed forces will do their duty. The question is whether His Majesty's Treasury will do theirs. Because in the end, it's simple: invest now and buy peace, or fumble down the back of the sofa when the storm has already broken. And until that choice is made — properly, publicly, and with conviction — the only thing 'ten times more lethal' in this review is the gap between the rhetoric and the reality.
Bloomberg
02-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Starmer Torn Between Trump and Labour on UK Defense Overhaul
By and Ellen Milligan Save Keir Starmer's revamp of defense policy intended to show both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that Britain is serious about maintaining its role as a key power in Europe and NATO. But the prime minister's failure to explain how and when he'll find billions of pounds of extra spending to pay for the new weapons and personnel left him facing doubts about the UK's commitment to follow through. Starmer's plans must also survive rising pressure from Labour lawmakers, who want to prioritize domestic issues blowing back on the left-leaning party at the ballot box, such as controversial benefit cuts.
The Independent
02-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
From a ‘more lethal' army to extra AI – what's in Starmer's strategic defence review?
Keir Starmer has unveiled the results of his 'root and branch' review of Britain's armed forces, with a pledge to make the UK 'battle-ready'. The prime minister has ordered up to a dozen new attack submarines, £15bn worth of nuclear warheads and thousands of new long-range weapons after the report concluded that the country should prepare for war. Here The Independent looks at what is in the prime minister's long-awaited strategic defence review, which warns of the threat posed by Russia and draws heavily on the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine. A 'more lethal' army and other 'immediate' steps Ministers have announced they will implement all 62 of the report's recommendations in full – but there will be a number of 'immediate' steps. These include creating a British Army that is 'ten times more lethal' with more personnel, long-range missiles and 'land-drone swarms'. As well as the new nuclear warheads and nuclear-powered attack submarines, ministers will also buy new autonomous vessels 'to patrol the North Atlantic and beyond', create a 'next generation' RAF with F-35s, upgraded Typhoons and 'autonomous fighters'. They will also spend £1bn on a homeland defence system to protect the UK from drones and missiles, use defence spending to drive economic growth and create a £400m defence innovation fund. Review backs spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence The PM is embroiled in a row over defence spending after he failed to make a firm commitment to hike it to 3 per cent of GDP by 2034. The defence review's authors say the government's 'ambition' to spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence is 'good news', but they add: 'However, as we live in such turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster'. It is understood that the report was written with the assumption that ministers would meet the 3 per cent target. Behind the scenes, Donald Trump has also been pressuring Sir Keir to hike Britain's defence spending, as the US president seeks to wean Europe off dependence on the US for military support. Alongside this, Donald Trump has been pressuring Sir Keir to hike Britain's defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP years earlier than planned, as the president seeks to wean Europe off dependence on the US for military support. The UK must 'move to war fighting readiness' One of the themes of the defence review is to make Britain war-ready, including protecting critical infrastructure in the event of a crisis. The SDR calls for a new Defence Readiness Bill, which would give ministers powers to 'respond effectively' in the event of an escalating conflict. Already ministers have announced they will respond to the call for 'always on munitions' by building up to six factories to create more weapons on British soil. Equipment and new technology 'will win' future conflicts In the foreword to the review, the defence secretary John Healey writes: "Whoever gets new technology into the hands of their armed forces the quickest will win.' Ministers have already announced plans for up to 12 new nuclear attack submarines, £15bn of investment in the nuclear warhead programme and 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons. At the weekend Mr Healey appeared to confirm he wants to purchase fighter jets capable of firing tactical nuclear weapons, a major pledge which would signal the UK recognised the world had entered a more dangerous era. The report also calls for greater use of AI as well as a new 'Digital Warfighter Group', which it says should not be held back by constraints on how much it can pay its staff, calling for 'appropriate recruitment and pay freedoms'. The SDR also says at least 10 per cent of the MoD equipment procurement budget should be spent on new technologies every year, and it urges ministers to remove red tape and other barriers to collaboration with industry partners. Already Mr Healey has announced a cyber command to counter a 'continual and intensifying' level of cyber warfare as well as plans to invest more than £1 billion into a new 'digital targeting web' to be set up by 2027, to better connect weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster. Starmer told to increase the size of the army The strategic defence review calls for a 'small" rise in the size of the regular army 'as a priority' – although it does add 'when funding allows'. On Sunday, however, the defence secretary said that would not happen before 2029 at the earliest. The other recommendations include that the UK should have a minimum of 100,000 soldiers - of which 73,000 are regulars. Ministers should hike the number of active reservists by 20 per cent, when funding allows, and new joiners should be offered shorter periods of services – including the MOD's planned 'gap years' – to aid recruitment. The government should cut costs by slashing the civil service defence workforce by 10 per cent and automating 20 per cent of HR, finance and commercial functions in the next three years 'as a minimum first step'. 'Red tape and excessive bureaucracy created by 'people' policy, process and assurance' should be removed, the report says. Ministers have also announced they are to spend an additional £1.5bn fixing up the military at home amid claims years of neglect have led to troops quitting.
